HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL: Steinert survives slugfest with Hightstown

By RICH FISHER, For The Trentonian

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

HAMILTON — This was a load off Steinert’s shoulders.

A serious load. “Seriously,” confirmed Carly Wood after her 11 points and 10 rebounds paced the Spartan girls’ basketball team to a 50-39 win over Hightstown last night. “It has been so hard, it really has.”

It was a battle of two teams having a hard time, as Steinert (3-12) snapped a four-game losing streak while extending Hightstown’s slide to five.

Steinert prevailed by bridging the second and third quarters with a 10-0 run to snap a 17-17 tie and take control for good.

“We always focus on that first two minutes of the third period and make sure we come out strong,” coach Kristin Jacobs said. “We had a lot of different girls in there doing a lot of different jobs, we were happy with that.”

The Spartans balanced attack put eight girls in the scorebook with six of them (besides Wood) scoring between four and nine points.

“That’s fantastic,” Jacobs said. “That makes me happy. It’s a total team effort that way. We have to keep putting the ball in the basket and be happy with that W.”

The game started as if it would be a slugfest throughout, as there were eight lead changes and four ties through the first 15 minutes. The final tie came on a bucket by Hightstown’s Jessica Marcus (10 points) to tie it at 17-17.

Wood then hit a bucket to put Steinert up for good. Rachel “The Anthem” Rivera drilled a 3-pointer and high-energy forward Adrianna “Boosh” Boucher followed with another hoop to give the Spartans a 24-17 halftime lead.

“I think we kind of lost our composure,” said Rams coach Doug Shunk, whose team dropped to 5-13. “They’re a great team and we always have great competition with them, and some of our girls just lost a little bit of their composure.

“It was just a tough game all around. There were a lot of fouls and we had a few mistakes. It seems like it’s always something new we have to work on.”

Steinert opened a double-digit lead early in the third on a foul shot by Lauren Matrisciano, who had nine points and nine rebounds, and a layup from Boucher. The Spartans carried a 37-26 lead into the fourth quarter and took their largest advantages at 41-27 and 43-29 as Mackenzie Ewell scored six of her nine points in the quarter.

“We had a nice group in there for part of that third quarter, a very aggressive group that worked hard,” Jacobs said. “We got some easy baskets off steals going to the basket. We got some things in transition, per say, where we were able to get the ball upcourt, skip over their traps and really get those easy baskets.”

Cassidie Geffrard (14 points), the Rams leading scorer this year, had been held down over the first three quarters but hit two 3-pointers and a lay-up to bring Hightstown within 47-39 with under a minute left before Ewell hit two foul shots to seal it.

The Spartans are still looking for back to back wins, and have a chance today against Pennington.

“We’ve definitely been wanting to build off a win,” Wood said. “I hope this is the one that starts it.”